PATH
PATH is the personal dimension of Dailik Faythorn. It is foreshadowed in drawings in Dailik's study, but is not fully introduced until the Chosen find themselves knee deep in it. It is a land defined by the long, unbroken road that stretches from one end of the continent to the other, and offers safe passage to all travelers who show themselves worthy. It is advised that one never leaves the path. This is because once someone has left it, it will relocate randomly. This is a passive enchantment on it that allows for the path to be so safe to travel on. There are fourteen prominent landmarks on PATH, which test a traveler's worth. The first seven are known as Temples, and within each is associated a different trial. The final Temple, on top of a great snowy mountain summit, is supposed to lead the traveler to Heaven. After each Temple, there is a large gate, where the traveler must face the trial they were prepared for. First Temple: The Temple of the Shiny The first temple is filled with goods which adventurers can take as much as they can carry. It is formatted like a large shopping mall, except no money is used. If the player tries to stay inside past closing, they must face a monster that is immune to every item and weapon. Instead, they find that the method of beating the monster is by turning on the emergency sprinkler system, and then attacking it with physical weapons -- even unarmed strikes work, as the water will cancel out the acidic power of the beast. (This is also known as the pipe puzzle, because during the day it is remarked upon that the emergency sprinkler system is nonoperational due to pressure leaks in the pipes. This causes the most lulsy game of I-Spy, as players assigned to working the pipes must make spot checks for pipes that look leaky -- there will usually be water dripping, or for the easier ones the water will be gushing out -- and then race over to them and fix them with magical duct tape. Meanwhile, the players combating the monster are... fighting something waaay over their heads. Their weapons will frequently melted away by the beasts natural acidic gelatinous nature. Fortunately, they may run inside stores, pick up new supplies, and use them to stave off the beast. If they do not keep the beast busy enough, it will run to target the pipers... er... pipe players.) (Okay, I am very inspired today, Jan 4, 2010. I will present this puzzle as five poster boards, taped together to make a five sided box with bottom side missing. I may add a top, but it will be just plain paper or something. The pipe team, on each of their rounds, will be allowed to duck inside the box and make a real life spot check. On each of the four surrounding sides, there will be diagrams of the mall. The top will always represent the roof over the person's head. It will be covered in post it notes to simulate darkness. When they make their first spot check, I will write in pencil the words "drip drip". For each twelve seconds the player takes to find "drip drip", the monster team will have to fend off the monster for another round. I will have to find a way to make these boards reusable. I may have to draw these out on printer paper, tape the printer paper to the boards, and just replace panels each time I want to use this temple.)(The placement of "drip drip" can be anywhere, the size of the words being equivalent to how obvious the drip drip is.)(Non obvious drip drips over the person's head will be written on the back side of the post it notes, so if they really can't find out where the dripping is, they will rifle through the post it notes on the ceiling. This will also be good because I will only have to replace a few post its each time.) (More than one player will need to be involved in this effort, as it takes three minutes to change sides of the Temple, and two minutes to go up to the next floor). While a player is on one side of the multi-storied temple, they cannot look at the wall of the box on their side -- they must keep their back to it. This stops players from being on one side and having the magical ability to look at higher floors on their side.) (There will be an easy, normal, and heroic setting to this puzzle. In easy mode, the players get twenty three seconds of pipe searching for every round the monster then gets. In normal, it's twelve seconds per. In heroic, it's six. In legendary, which is how Dailik Faythorn did this puzzle, the player must close their eyes, and the DM gets to "literally splash water in the direction of the drip drip".) The first gate is the Gate of the Raccoon. In order to get across, the players must either leave behind all of their belongings, or fight the Raccoon Boss. If the players accept the terms, they are allowed to cross, and are then allowed to keep certain objects that the raccoon is not interested in. (Even if it is very interesting, this will be explained by the raccoon showing the players that he has "an exact copy of your unique item".) (If you really need an explanation, all of this is a dream, so he can really pull out anything: everything in this realm is stored as memories in the reality interface.) Second Temple: The Temple of Memories The second temple is equally deceptive about when the lesson begins. The adventurers enter the temple, where they are allowed to share everyone else's memories. When the experience has ended, there is a catch that none of them were told of. Everyone's memories are erased. The adventurers wake up, and the first thing they remember is the Second Temple's door closing. They all remember things about their companions, like habits, and the like: but oddly, everyone trusts everyone else. Every time the party goes to sleep, everyone has to roll a will save. (It's like DC 23.) Should anyone succeed, they suddenly realize that there is something horribly wrong, and that everyone's memories have been tampered with. If they roll high enough over the DC, they might even remember all of their memories. When the party reaches the Gate, they are informed by a knowledgeable peddler of souvenirs that their memories have been altered. He assures the party that nothing sinister is afoot. He explains the benefit of what has transpired, and begs the players to understand. With some reluctance, he then gives the players a choice: they may continue on as they are, happily united and such, without their past memories, or he can restore their memories for the price that they must face the dire consequences to come. If he is asked if there is any other way to restore their memories later, he hints that there are a few people after the Third Temple who specialize in memory restoration -- should they remember to ask. If the players are too eager to off and leave their memories closed for this temporary time, the souvenir vendor reminds them that the first time they met, he told them how to get through the Third Temple in under a half an hour. Decisions, Decisions. The Second Gate is really passive. It's just a decision that will decide the difficulty of the Third area. The Third area is also geared to be harder because of how passive the second area is. Third Temple: The Temple of Fear Incarnate This is a mind fuck temple, and arguably the Second Gate. The souvenir vendor is actually standing right on the path to the Third Temple's front gate. The Third temple is also known as the Twin Temple, and right behind the temple is a perilous cliff that looks over the entirety of the third zone. The temple guardians reveal that the players are at their mercy. If they succeed in the temple, they will be set along a shared path. If they fail, then the party will be divided. "If you refuse to take the test, then good luck finding your own way down." The trial is taken two at a time, which means that there has to be an even amount of people. If there is an odd person left over, then a horrific "alternative trial" will be chosen, but it will only be described to them after they accept. Usually, it is best to let the strongest person in the party take this role, because the one alternative trial I can think of here is that they have to fight both guardians directly. It is possible, with environmental advantages that can be utilized if the player is lucky enough to find them, but it isn't simple like the first temple's water puzzle (lol)(lol)(...I wrote this comment before I wrote the water puzzle). Two people take the trial at a time, each going into one of the twin temples. In there, they will have to face one of their partner's greatest fears, and then they will have to face one of their own. It's usually a combat, though sometimes it is a puzzle. Wave had a horrible time with his because his partner was Carrisa, and her greatest fear was Wave. So Wave had an easy, though sobering, first opponent. All he had to do was not run away as his doppleganger approached him and said things in a sinister tone. Some of the things said were true, but taken out of his intended context, or made out of Carrisa's imagination. Continuing to use Wave as an example, his next task was to fight himself, should he be consumed by the darkness he feels he will succumb to if he embraces his powers. The only way he can win is by using his own abilities, but he is still too afraid to, so he fails. If the party is divided, which it most likely will be if it failed the Second Gate and had the player's memories restored along with the memories of their old fears, then all is not lost. Special game sessions have to occur where the DM explains the player's journey all the way to the Third Gate. If the party chose not to have their memories restored, they will still have to take the trial. However, their new persona's greatest fear is that the party will split. When they face their partner's fear, all they have to do is say "I will never leave your side". When they must face their own, they can simply Deny the Fear's Existence, since they know that at least one other person has their same fear, and that at the very least the two of them will walk the path together. Succeeding, the two will walk the short path together. There is nothing along this path, unlike the two other paths: as this path is only accessible by HANG GLIDING across the Third Zone. The automated adventure will land them on the pier on the opposite sheer cliff face. The pier on which they land on is called the Pier of Coalition Victory. Their memories will be restored upon meeting with Daishu at the fourth temple. If someone succeeds the alternative trial, they will get to hang glide to the easter egg pier, the Pier of Peerless Victory. The Third Zone has two communities, one on each path. I have yet to design the sub story arcs that occur here. The Third Gate is an outdoor labyrinth. There is some element about it that makes everyone inside it have to do some team building puzzle. There is a shared middle, but also there are certain places within where the player is promised a quick escape from the maze. If they do this, stranding their teammates, they will be teleported to the beginning, and everyone will be notified by an automated computer voice that "Player Blank has been returned to the beginning." This is another lulsy puzzle. Once everyone inside the maze reaches the middle and true escape way, they can all activate it at the same time and warp up to the Pier of Coalition Victory. Protip: some of the false exits look like the real one, but only the real one will be reachable by all the other players. Second protip: any of these escapes are functional exits, but the devices require multiple people to successfully activate, and requires that the rest of the maze be devoid of people. Fourth Temple After successfully navigating the labyrinth with a renewed sense of appreciation for their party, the adventurers continue along the path. From the cliff top pier, they travel down hill into the Cloud Forest, under the jurisdiction of the Fourth Guardian. Originally, the guardian was Daishu, though I have no idea who it is now. He was replaced when Daishu decided to go off adventuring with the Chosen. Actually, this whole place would have been redesigned after Daishu left. His grove still exists, and there is a chance of running into him, but the actual temple and general introductory reception would have been completely redesigned. The fourth gate has the players use their newfound magical abilities against a big old tank and spank giant who guards the gate. The more interesting and thorough account of this gate regards the original venture, when Daishu was still the guardian and the Pawns of Twilight were still trying to tame the land and find a way across into the fifth through seventh zones. (Dailik made them fight things in order to civilize his plane because he wanted his soldiers to get combat experience, and knew that whatever he built wouldn't be usable until the Chosen had been given enough time anyway; so he was in no hurry for construction or the stockpiling of armaments.) Fifth Temple Sixth Temple Seventh Temple